Let's Say "On-Site Practical Training" Instead of "OJT"

15 Foreign Words Refined into Simple Korean Expressions

"OJT" (On-the-Job Training) ranked first as the foreign word most in need of being replaced with a Korean equivalent, receiving 76.6% of the votes.

Provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of the Korean Language announced that they have refined 15 commonly used foreign words into simpler Korean expressions and established easy and accurate standard terms for 62 specialized terms in the content sector. After candidate terms were prepared by the "New Words Group"-which included members of the media, academia, and young people (university students)-a public acceptance survey was conducted with 3,000 people aged 15 and older nationwide. Based on these results, the final review was conducted by the Language Refinement Subcommittee of the National Language Deliberation Council in December 2025.

According to the survey, the foreign word most frequently cited by the public as needing to be replaced with a Korean equivalent was "OJT" (76.6%), followed by "big shot/big short" (76.5%), "heuristic" (74.9%), "milestone" (74.1%), and "deal closing" (73.5%).

"OJT" was refined to "on-site practical training," "big shot/big short" to "influential figure" or "key person," and "heuristic" to "empirical judgment." "Milestone," which refers to a benchmark in work progress, was changed to "stage goal" or "performance indicator," while "deal closing," meaning the process of finalizing a contract, was replaced with "contract signing."

Foreign language expressions refined into Korean. Provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Specialized terms in the content sector were also standardized into simpler Korean expressions. "Plot," which refers to the flow of a story, was changed to "structure," "chroma key," used in video production, to "image compositing technology," and "location," meaning filming site, to "on-site filming." In addition, "trailer" was refined to "preview," "teaser" to "teaser video," "cookie video" to "bonus video," "storynomics" to "story industry," and "MacGuffin" to "bait device."